"Say who you are, really say it in your life and in your work. Tell someone out there who is lost, who is not yet born, someone who won't be born for 500 years. Your writing will be a record of your time, it can't help but be. More importantly, if you are honest about who you are, you'll help that person be less lonely in their World, because that person will recognize him or herself in you and that will give them hope. It's done so for me, and I have to keep rediscovering it, its profound importance in my life. Give that to the world, rather than selling something to the World. Don't allow yourself to be tricked into thinking that the way things are is the way the World must work and that in the end, selling is what everyone must do. Try not to."

FX Networks has greenlighted How And Why, a half-hour comedy pilot from Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman. It tells the story of a man who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works, but is clueless about life. Kaufman will write and direct the pilot and serve as executive producer. FX Prods will produce. How And Why joins another recently ordered FX comedy pilot, animated Chozen from Grant Dekernion, Danny McBride and the team behind Eastbound & Down. Dekernion is writing and executive producing Chozen, about a white rapper, recently out of prison, who uses his new survival skills in his quest for redemption. McBride and Rough House Pictures will executive produce with Floyd County Prods. Characters will be voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Bobby Moynihan, Michael Pena, Hannibal Buress, Kathryn Hahn, Nick Swardson and McBride. FX Prods is producing.

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

It's funny how the complaints subside if a Kickstarter project is taken on by someone you like. For example: last summer screenwriter/director Charlie Kaufman and former "Community" writer/producer Dan Harmon (two pretty successful guys in their own right) hit the crowdfunding site looking for backers to help get the stop-motion animated "Anomalisa" off the ground. And they certainly didn't face Zach Braff-ian levels of discontent and went on to quietly double their $200,000 goal. And with some cash already in hand, they're headed to Cannes hoping that the movie industry will now front the rest.

Kaufman, who co-wrote the script based on his own play, will also co-direct the project (with Duke Johnson), which has since lined up Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan and David Thewlis for voice roles, with Carter Burwell (the longtime Coen Brothers collaborator who is also composing the music for the upcoming "August: Osage County") providing the score. Impressive, stuff.

It's unclear if this is now aiming to be a feature (it was originally conceived as a 40-minute film), but production is already underway on the movie so perhaps it's sticking with its short format. The story itself follows Michael, a celebrated motivational speaker whose life has become hollow and meaningless. But that all changes when he meets Lisa.

The movie is aimed at adults (as the Kickstarter site says, it's "about a man crippled by the mundanity of his life" -- fun!) and it'll be interesting to see what interest it generates in the south of France.

When I found out about that, it made me confused and upset and happy. I like both dudes. But I think there might be better people for the job. Or they could just leave it alone. That said, Del Toro probably ends up only doing like a fifth of the movies he wants to do.

It has been six years since we've had anything on any screen from the mind of Charlie Kaufman. It was 2008 when he delivered "Synecdoche, New York" and since then, while the promise of this Hollywood satire/musical "Frank Or Francis" has been teased, it has yet to find the momentum or money/support to get made. But once again, television is giving someone of Kaufman's unique talent a place to flourish. Last spring came word that over at FX, Kaufman was writing a TV series called "How And Why," but there were few other details. But today, not only does it have stars but we now know a little of what it's all about.

Deadline reports that Michael Cera and John Hawkes have signed on to star in the half-hour comedy show. The premise? The series will follow a man clueless about life, yet who is smart enough to explain how and why a nuclear reactor works. And yes, that is the sort of perfectly oddball logline we'd expect from Kaufman. He'll be writing and directing the pilot episode, and executive producing too, but no word yet on if or when this will go to series. But fingers crossed everyone. (And if you need more Kaufman in your life, don't forget he's also co-directed the animated, Kickstarter funded animated effort "Anomalisa").

Oscar-nominated Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) and Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich, Capote) have joined the cast of FX‘s How And Why, from Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche). They join John Hawkes and Michael Cera in the half-hour comedy pilot, which begins production this spring in North Carolina. How And Why tells the story of Goodman Hesselman (Hawkes), who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works but is clueless about life. After losing his gig hosting children’s science show How And Why, he tries to start over with a new show in a little TV market in the middle of nowhere when he encounters the supernatural world. Hawkins and Keener’s character information was not provided, but if the show receives a series order, Hawkins will be a series regular and Keener will guest star. Kaufman will direct the pilot and exec produces with Anthony Bregman. How And Why is produced by FX Productions.

FX Passes on Charlie Kaufman Comedy 'How & Why'The Michael Cera and John Hawkes starrer is now being shopped to other outlets.Source: THR

Charlie Kaufman's return to TV may not be as soon as he thought it would be.

The comedy pilot How & Why from Kaufman, who won an Oscar for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, has been passed over at FX, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Producers are now shopping the comedy starring Michael Cera to other outlets, with Netflix having already passed on the project, THR has learned. IFC is seen as a potential home for the comedy, though it's unclear if that will actually happen given the price tag associated with the comedy.

How & Why, which was ordered to pilot in March 2013 [4], tells the story of a man who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works but is otherwise clueless about life. Oscar nominee John Hawkes (Winter's Bone) stars as Goodman Hesselman, host of the How & Why show at the center of the comedy. After losing his passion for the show, he is replaced by a younger host and relocates to a different town to start a similar program with significantly lower stature. Cera (Arrested Development) will portray Mendelson, Goodman's new boss. Sally Hawkins co-stars [2], with Catherine Keener guest-starring.

Kaufman penned the script, exec produces and directed the pilot for FX Productions. The series marks Kaufman's return to half-hour comedy following Fox's Ned and Stacey, which ended its two-season run in 1997. His TV credits also include Get a Life, The Dana Carvey Show and Adult Swim's stop-motion entry Moral Orel in 2006.

How & Why joins Paul Giamatti entry Hoke as being passed over at FX. The cabler is still prepping pilots Death Pact, Kurt Sutter's Bastard Executioner and an untitled Zach Galifianakis and Louis C.K. half-hour, among others.

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Kaufman has been signed to do a page one rewrite of I.Q. 83, an adaptation of Arthur Herzog’s classic 1978 science fiction novel that Paramount is now developing as a star vehicle for Steve Carell. Mad Chance’s Andrew Lazar is producing with Walter Parkes. The plan is for Carell to play Dr. James Healey, who led a group of scientists that conducted DNA experiments that unleashed an airborne virus that ravages the population. The affliction isn’t fatal but pretty bad; it progressively lowers the IQ of the afflicted, more effectively than a marathon of the Kardashians’ reality show. It becomes a race against time as the scientist struggles for a cure, even as he feels himself growing dumber. He watches crowds regressing into animal packs and sees the president of the United States try to comfort the masses, only to babble and drool on television.

Lazar first set the project at DreamWorks almost 20 years ago, and a succession of screenwriters never cracked it. Ownership went to Paramount when it took possession of many of the development projects DreamWorks left behind. Herzog wrote it as serious science fiction, but the aim of this new version is to do a scathing satire, on the order of Doctor Strangelove, the 1964 Stanley Kubrick-directed classic.

Herzog was a political speechwriter in the ’60s who also turned out books that included The Swarm and Orca, both of which were adapted into features. Kaufman has the quirky sensibility, evidenced in such films as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, that makes him a novel choice for the new take. He will go back to Herzog’s book and work from that. They’ll worry about a director when Kaufman gets the script right. Lazar previously worked with Carell on the Get Smart feature and with Kaufman on Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind.

In a deal that sources peg at north of $5 million, Paramount Pictures has made its second major acquisition of an otherwise dull Toronto Film Festival. The studio that just made a $10 million U.S. rights pre-buy deal based on promo footage of the Meryl Streep-Hugh Grant comedy Florence Foster Jenkins, has closed a deal for the stop-motion pic Anomalisa, directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. They are going to release it December 30 in New York and Los Angeles and roll it out after that.

The pursuit of this one was brisk, with A24 and Sony Pictures Classics among those in the hunt. The film has really snuck up on people and wasn’t heralded before it made a splash in Venice, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. The deal was made as it played in Toronto in the Special Presentations category. It was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign and is the second movie at Toronto to gain traction coming from those origins, with the first-person POV Midnight film Hardcore close to a deal with several suitors bidding last night for a wide-screen release. CAA and WME Global brokered the deal with attorney Erik Hyman. Hanway is handling international.

Paramount has increasingly relied on the festivals to put films on its slate, while the studio overhauls itself internally because it just hasn’t been generating enough of its own movies. The studio paid premiums to pre-buy at $20 million the Denis Villenueve-directed Story Of Your Life at Cannes, which stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. Last Toronto, Paramount paid between $12.5 million and $15 million for the Chris Rock-directed Top Five. Who could turn down such exuberance, when Paramount is giving prestige films the full studio treatment and wide releases?

Said Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey: “The film is a spectacular achievement of artistry, one that we are incredibly pleased to be a part of. Charlie is a filmmaker of immense vision and craft and he and Duke have created a film that stands alone as one of the year’s best.”

Said Kaufman, Johnson and producer Rosa Tran: “Anomalisa has been a three-year labor of love and we are thrilled the film has now found a home at Paramount with people who are passionate about the film and are committed to sharing it with the world.”

The logline: Michael Stone, husband, father and respected author of “How May I Help You Help Them?,” is a man crippled by the mundanity of his life. On a business trip to Cincinnati, where he’s scheduled to speak at a convention of customer service professionals, he checks into the Fregoli Hotel. There, he is amazed to discover a possible escape from his desperation in the form of an unassuming Akron baked goods sales rep, Lisa, who may or may not be the love of his life.

Based on the book by Iain Reid — which features a book blurb by Kaufman — the story follows a suicidal woman en route to meet her boyfriend’s parents, before he unexpectedly deserts her and drives off alone. Here’s the book synopsis:

In this deeply suspenseful and irresistibly unnerving debut novel, a man and his girlfriend are on their way to a secluded farm. When the two take an unexpected detour, she is left stranded in a deserted high school, wondering if there is any escape at all. What follows is a twisted unraveling that will haunt you long after the last page is turned.